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THE TRANSMISSION GALLERY
PRESTATYN
| Photos by Bill Wright | Page last updated: 2021-10-13 |
| There are three relays along this part of the coast that carry two channels only. These are Holywell, Flint and Bagillt. Clearly, their only purpose (in this very English part of Wales!) is to appease the Welsh language lobby, because without BBC2 and ITV1 they cannot be necessary for coverage reasons. The Prestatyn relay, however, must have been adjudged to be technically necessary because it carries four channels, but if so, how come no-one seems to use it? The curious transmission arrangement, with a solitary log-periodic pointing across a semi-rural area in an apparent attempt to serve Blackpool, puzzled me for a while. But in fact the transmission is aimed solely at the eastern fringe of the town where reception from Llanddona is unreliable. In essence the Prestatyn relay exists as a filler for Llanddona, and since no-one uses Llanddona then no-one uses Prestatyn either. It all makes perfect sense in a crazy sort of way! [Ed]. The Prestatyn relay probably entered service during 1998 and was built to deal with CCI from the interim DTT services from Winter Hill which were predicted to effect the reception of ITV and BBC 2 from Llanddona to about 450 residents of Prestatyn. |
| BILL'S ADVENTURES IN PRESTATYN - The full story A 235m ridge overlooks Prestatyn, and a quick look at the OS map suggested that the television transmitter site would be near the summit, where several towers are marked. The quoted NGR, however, suggested that the site was some distance down the hillside on the edge of the town. There was only one way to discover the truth. As it happened we approached the top of the ridge from the south through Gwaenysgor. In that small village an old man looked at us as if we were from outer space, then we were on a narrow, twisting, and deeply unpromising lane. Hedges brushed both sides of the van, but then we turned a corner and went over a brow and a fantastic view of the Prestatyn and Rhyl coastline was before us. Two impressive towers on the right showed no signs of television broadcast aerials though, so after we'd enjoyed the fantastic view for a while we set off towards the town. The road suddenly went downhill and became alarmingly narrow and steep. Mercifully we didn't meet anything, since seven tons of camper can be quite hard to reverse up that sort of slope - in fact it can't be done unless you want to buy a new clutch every year, so you just have to wait while the grim truth sinks in down the road and the flustered lady driver in the Ford Fiasco finally struggles with the unfamiliar art of reversing for all of 50 yards. Then you drive past and give a cheery wave and all you get in return is a daggers look! Some people! I'd transferred the NGR reference to the satnav and as we crawled down the narrow road in bottom gear Gertie (the lady in the satnav) piped up "You have reached your destination." This was on a terrific left-hand devil's elbow that I could only just get round, but in between watching in the mirror as my rear overhang dislodged a few stones from someone's wall I glanced through the trees and just got a glimpse of a log-periodic on a wooden pole. The NGR was correct then, but there was absolutely no possibility of stopping even for a moment, never mind parking. A hundred yards further down the steep and narrow slope the road levelled out a bit and there was, miraculously, a small car park. The only problem being that I needed to reverse into it, and when I looked in the rear view monitor there was a local youth on a pop-pop motorbike sitting about six inches from my bumper, patiently waiting for the traffic jam to clear. I engaged reverse, which invokes an ear shattering bleeper at the back of the van. This had no effect on the village idiot on the moped, so I edged back in the hope that he would get the message. In the monitor I saw the gap between my tow hitch and his front wheel diminish to nothing. Finally he took the hint and picked up his machine bodily and fled up a driveway with it. As I backed into the car park I gave him my customary cheery wave, and although his response was largely inaudible I think I got the gist of it. Young people have no manners these days. I staggered on foot back up the hill to the devil's elbow, where I found a farm gate leading to the transmitter site. The RBL from Llanddona is received by two log-periodics, and transmission is by a single log-periodic pointing NNE. For some reason that I don't understand this aerial is looking towards the eastern fringes of the town rather than towards the centre of population. The only housing of any significance in that direction is very close to the site and well below it, yet the transmission aerial points loftily to the blue horizon. Given the wide swathe of highly populated coastline spread out below the site I would have expected the customary crossed log periodics or even a stack of dipoles. Overwhelmed with nerdy curiosity I concluded the photography and drove down to the town, where I had a good look round, especially at the transmitter's apparent target area. The grand total of aerials that I saw pointing at the site was two in the entire town, and one of these was (bizarrely) a hundred yards from the site, in a place where Llanddonna would provide perfect signals. I drove out of town to the east then turned back and went through the centre, taking a diversion along the seafront, and I only saw one other aerial pointing at the relay. I can only think that Prestatyn prefers English television, for Llanddona, Moel, and the relay are largely ignored, and 99.9% of the aerials in the town look towards Winter Hill. |
Bagillt | Flint | Holywell | Llanddona | Moel-y-Parc | Winter Hill
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